THE COLOUR STUDIO - HAND DYED SHOES

I was lucky enough to be picked as the winner of three pairs of shoes of my choice to be hand-dyed in a Facebook competition. This was a fabulous prize for me as I absolutely love shoes and am always on the lookout for well made, unique coloured shoes to coordinate with my clothes.

Like most people, I'm sure, I have shoes in nude, black and navy, but here was an opportunity to really personalise some shoes.

The system of buying shoes is very simple - there are (currently) 49 styles of shoes on their Occasion Shoes part of the website (http://www.mycolourstudio.co.uk/occasion-shoes). You can literally spend hours deciding which style of shoe, because of the websites ability to let you see the shoes in any of the standard colours that they offer (currently 40). You can do the mathematics...but if you looked at every shoe in every colour that would be 1960 combinations....I think that my teenage daughter and I must have looked at every shoe in every colour and then tried to imagine them with different outfits. It was the most fun we have had together "fashion" shopping in ages.

Finally, I made my decision on the style of the shoes. All to be worn on evenings out, though I am very tempted to wear them to work, just to cause a stir.

I ordered the shoes and they arrived, beautifully boxed with a Colour Pack in each box. The process is very simple - you complete the form with the colour you want, send the shoes back in a helpfully prepaid packet and then wait for the shoes to arrive. (Please note that I think you now have to go to a local stockist to buy the shoes).

Once I had sent the shoes back to be dyed, turn round time was around 6 working days for my shoes, though I imagine if you were asking them to hand-dye to match specific swatch of fabric it may take longer.

I have to say that I was absolutely delighted with the shoes that I received. All were boxed, with tissue paper and shoe shapers. The shoes are fantastic quality - top notch satin material. The shoes with open toes have a hand dyed section at the front of the shoe (as you can see in the photograph), so no inner of the shoe is showing when you wear them. The shoes with toes have a suede insert in the heel area for comfort. The detail is amazing.

True to form I chose some taupe coloured shoes as these will go with practically all my outfits.

Next. some dusky pink ones. I have a couple of cocktail dresses with pinky/peachy tones and these shoes would match brilliantly. I love the diamante detail!

Finally, the shoestopper....bright blue for a real statement shoe.

 

 

They can also dye handbags and shoe clips and can match to your own colour swatch.

 

Whenever I want a special pair of shoes I will definitely be turning to Rainbow Couture (http://www.rainbowclub.co.uk/). They should be every girl's first stop for weddings and special occasions.

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REVIEW OF KINDLE COVER AND READING LIGHT

I have had my Kindle for a while now and have to say that I think it is one of the best gadgets around. It is great to take on holidays where you can have access to hundreds of books for less than the weight of one large paperback and I find it especially handy to have with me in the car for those many occasions when I am waiting for my children to finish clubs or activities. There are often evenings when there isn't enough time to warrant going home and I don't need to go to the corner shop again to buy things I don't really need!!

I use my Kindle both for books I read in text form and for listening to audio books - that way I can knit socks at the same time, which is another of my hobbies.

However, I have found recently that although I take care not to scratch the screen or back of the Kindle, that it has been looking a bit forlorn. What I really needed was a cover. I looked at many websites for covers and found them all extremely expensive. What I wanted was something that looked classy, but that didn't come at a price that was equal to the cost of the Kindle.

 I found the perfect Kindle cover at Gearzap.com. ( http://www.gearzap.com/amazon-kindle-accessories/amazon-kindle-cases.html)

They offer a range of covers to suit all the various Kindle editions so you will be sure to find the one for you. I chose a deep purple one (it matches my handbag!) and was very impressed. The quality of the material is excellent and you could believe it was leather as it has that feel about it. The Kindle is held securely within the case by four corner straps and on the inside cover there is a handy pocket that could hold a rail or bus ticket for those travelling on public transport. No fiddling in pockets and bags for that elusive ticket.

My other desire with my Kindle was a reading light. I am often sitting in the car during the Winter months (sometimes for up to half an hour or forty minutes) and trying to read by means of the interior lights not only drains the car battery, but is also a great strain on your eyes as the light does not shine onto the Kindle well and so you are reading in half gloom.

So when I ordered my cover I opted for the pack with the LED booklight. Fabulous! It clips onto the top of the Kindle cover and provides just the right amount of light without too much glare.

Best of all was the price. at only £18.95 this was an absolute bargain for both items and I would highly recommend to other Kindle owners.

COMPETITION WINS JAN & FEB 2013

Well this year has started off really well (though not quite as good as November and December when I managed to pretty much win all my Christmas presents!), but some nice wins nevertheless.

I have continued to enter competitions on Facebook and Twitter as these are easy to do and require nothing more than a click of the mouse. Beware however, that you don't get too carried away as time can pass by very quickly.

There are problems with both of these methods though;

1. Beware you don't enter too many at once or you could find yourself banned from using either site for an hour or so or even longer. Facebook especially blocks you for up to 30 days if it thinks you are "spamming" and as many competitions require you to simply "like and share" the posts do all look similar.
2. With Rafflecopter entries on Twitter you often have to post the URL of the tweet. Don't simply copy the tweet as this will not be recognised. To find the URL, find the tweet, hover over the time elapsed since sent record (top right hand side of the tweet) and copy and paste this into the Rafflecopter entry form.
3. Winning posts - Twitter is much better at this and you either get a mention (which is easy to check on your profile page) or a DM. Facebook not so good and many sites just post a message on their wall. If you follow lots of pages for competitions, it can be difficult to check them all, so join The Winners' Circle group and you may find others post your name as a winner!

So what have I won.....Quite a lot of makeup and facial products which all come in handy with a teenage daughter in the house, the nicest being a three month subscription to BirchBox, which has given me the opportunity to try out products I might not think of purchasing; a few DVDs and books; bracelets (these seem to be popular prizes, but a girl can never have too many).

The best prizes so far this year - 10 balls of Louisa Harding wool that I intend to make into a cosy jumper (great prize for a knitter), three pairs of shoes that were hand-dyed to the colour I wanted (I'll post something separately about these when I get a chance to take photos) and £200.00 of loungewear from Skiny that has yet to arrive.

All I can say to other compers is don't give up if the prizes don't seem to be coming as they will. After all you have to be in it to win it!!